When you don’t monitor these things and fix them consistently, they start to add up. Think of it as a garden – it takes maintenance, or it starts to become overgrown.

It is incredibly important to stay technically correct, especially with new developments such as mobile usability, page speed, AMP and more.

If you don’t, you are sure to have an error at some point that will cost you down the line. Similarly, your tech stack will become so out of date that you can no longer compete in the market.

If you stop refreshing pages

When you refresh a page correctly, traffic will generally increase to that page 10% to 30%, sometimes more.

The reason for this is because Google sees the new text and the value it provides and wants to rank it higher.

Now, there are many ways to go about doing refreshes. Some of those include:

Adding FAQs to the page

Adding links to other articles

Updating facts

Updating dates

Making the text longer

Adding schema

Changing a page template

Etc.

Lately, the most important thing to look for when refreshing a page is whether or not it matches search intent, and if the page in question is better than the #1 ranking page. _ What happens if you stop doing SEO?

My process includes doing a search, categorizing the query based on intent, analyzing the top pages, creating a new strategy for the page we are trying to get ranked, and refreshing as a result of that.

If you stop building new pages

Building new pages are harder for some industries than others.

For example, when I worked with a few firms in the outsources accounting space, the lower funnel terms were minimal. If you compare that to a large e-commerce site like Amazon, its terms are endless.

While that is the case, I believe websites should always be targeting new terms and organizing them by segment. Those segments should be prioritized based on business goals and tracked in a dashboard.

But if you stop building new pages, you’ll lose keyword growth momentum.

I highly recommend creating these pages for SEO, but additionally, these new pages can be excellent landing pages for paid search and paid media, in general.

As a website grows, it’s a great idea to create more landing pages that target specific keywords and audiences. This will improve quality score on the page side and conversion rates all around.

If you stop this process, you’ll lose your competitive advantage. The people who win in the future of the web will be the ones converting traffic for less.

If you stop watching out for bad links

If you stop doing SEO, your backlink profile can get out of control.

Lately, spammy links are worse than ever before.

When you watch your backlinks, you will see the following happen:

People scrape your website content and keep the links in by accident.

You get Google alerts from sites hacked by malware.

Competitors try to do negative SEO on your site.

If you don’t update your disavow file once a month, you are putting your website rankings at risk. Lately, we have been doing it weekly for clients in competitive spaces.

If you stop watching out for stolen content

Go to your top landing page on your website right now.

Copy a block of text about three sentences long.

Put that text in quotes and search for it in Google. What do you see?

I’ll bet some of you will see other websites coming up for that content. Some might have even stolen from your website.

Now, think about the impact that can have if it happens across multiple pages on your site. Honestly, it can be devastating. Many times we find others have wholly duplicated a website, stolen key pages, or taken individual sections of a page.

When this happens, you need to address it.

Rewrite the content on your site.

Ask the other site to take it down.

File a DMCA on them if needed.

Consider sending them a cease and desist.

Sometimes, you can contact the hosting company and ask them to remove the site.

Regardless, if you stop watching for stolen content, it could have an extremely negative effect on your business and rankings. This is something you need to catch right away.

Bottom line: Why you should not stop doing SEO

Obviously, you’re not going to stop doing SEO. We all know it is an amazing asset to improve search ranking and help your business grow. The work you do to create and update content along with the technical issues that are easily solved if they’re on your radar, all improve your bottom line. But you also need to ensure you are compliant with privacy regulations if you wish to remain on top.

The ugly truth is that it’s hard to reverse momentum once a website starts going in the wrong direction. I am a firm believer that all things online should be scaled as the business grows, SEO included.

A client asked me the other day, what’s the difference between posts and pages on my WordPress website. I thought I’d write out my response to her, since odds are a few others have same question. So …

What’s the difference between posts and pages?

They’re kind of like apples to oranges. Your posts are content entries that are listed in reverse chronological order on your blog. Due to this, your posts are meant to be timely. Your pages are meant to be static content such as your about page.Essentially posts are more dynamic and pages are more static. Your website needs both. The search engines receive a ping when a post is added but not a page. a search engine will crawl all pages and posts on a site unless you’ve asked them not to (you can control this on each page as needed). Although, even if you ask SERPS not to craw a page or a post, it’s a request only and they don’t always honor that, meaning sometimes they’ll crawl and index anyways.

Once you’ve got a handle on the difference between posts and pages, it’s time to think about SEO.

For any page or post to achieve SEO, or search engine optimization, rank, it needs a few fundamental things. It needs to:

Be well built (content, style, meta data and amount of words)

Be well optimized – and –

Receive good traffic

If your pages or posts aren’t linked anywhere, odds are they aren’t getting much traffic and hence won’t perform well, e.g. you shouldn’t create many pages like this unless you’re going to drive ample traffic to them via social media, email marketing, and through your campaigns. You also want to make sure they’re included in your sitemap (exist in your main navigation and your site’s sitemap.xml).

How long until I see my blog in search results?here’s How long until you see your blog in search results?

The speed in which your blog post gets picked up and where it is placed in search, essentially depends on three things:

The traffic to the blog and/or blog post

The build of the content and the competitiveness of the blog and/or post title – and –

The page rank of your WordPress website or blog

One of the reason’s you work on SEO is to increase your website or blog’s page rank.

The higher your rank the more trust you have with Google, and the quicker your content is served and the faster you can get website results. One way to see your content online faster is to promote it online (such as via your email marketing and on Facebook or Google+). This increases the traffic to it and hence the trust factor. Even though your content may be built correctly, you still want to look at your title to see if people are actually going to search for it, meaning is it relevant and something people are looking for?How long until you see your blog in search results?

You want to choose titles that will get you traffic on people looking for something specific. Note that adding extra words and/or meanings to your titles and content will only water down the search factor on your popular keywords. So try and stick to the point and stay specific.

‘How long until I see my blog in search results’ is a good question. It’s one we get all the time. Remember, Google’s filter can still change search results. So read up on what you can do to fix it.

We’re doing the SEO for a local Central Oregon business. They’re great clients. We built them a custom WordPress site, with an integrated blog and all the fancy bells and whistles. In their monthly analytics reporting last month, I noticed a substantial traffic drop from the month prior so I looked further to see if there were any issues I could address. I found their domain’s ISP had been blacklisted by two DNSBLs (Domain Name System Blacklists are spam blocking lists that allow administrators to block messages from specific systems that have a history of sending spam). Yikes. Here’s the lowdown, and why you want to avoid it from happening to you.Why Not to Use Your Local Host: Intro to ISP blacklisting

Why Not to Use Your Local Host: Intro to ISP blacklisting

When we setup the hosting for Company M, we’ll call them, they insisted (well, their IT guys did) that their records be pointed back to our small Central Oregon internet service provider (ISP). We’ll call them, Local Dog. We advised against this several times. As of today, at least one of Local Dog’s servers affecting the whole IP range is blacklisted by two DNSBLs. It’s been 3 weeks since we found it, and Local Dog hasn’t gotten themselves de-blacklisted. My hunch is they’re unaware that they’re even on one. Therein lies the problem.

Are they so small that they don’t have the measures in place to realize their servers have been blacklisted and their customers are affected? Will they ever notice? Do they have enough clout to get themselves removed if and when they figure it out?

How to Fix the Issue if ISP Blacklisting Happens

Ultimately the ISP needs to get their servers removed as quickly as possible. With a good ISP, entire teams will work on this and can get the server(s) removed in a matter of days. If this isn’t fast enough or if the ISP can’t/won’t get themselves removed from the blacklists, the IP address needs to be changed, so the account would need to be closed and a new one opened to receive a different IP address. With our client, we’re suggesting a new domain in addition to a new IP to avoid affecting the domain health. The initial drop in traffic was enough for us to suggest the client move the domain to start fresh. Of course, moving domains would lose any acquired page rank, but in some situations such as when the traffic is affected or when the domain doesn’t have substantial page rank, it makes sense.

The whole incident sheds light on the issue of security in shared hosting environments. The reason why we set our client up with the host we did was due to the excellent security, speed and support this host would provide them.When Company M pointed their records off-host and back to Local Dog, Local Dog became the ISP of record.

The Takehome

When domain IPs are blacklisted, brand reputations can be damaged and traffic can be lost. This results in lost leads, cash and productivity for your business.

A NY client ask me yesterday what’s integrated marketing and how does it differ from them just running a few print ads and waiting to see if that works. This was a new business, right out of the gate.Drilled down to its basics, an integrated marketing campaign combines the medium, e.g., print/broadcast advertising, public relations, direct marketing, email, digital and in-store promotions, and multiple stages in a promotional campaign to ensure that the marketing message is consistently received by the greatest possible number of people in the target marketFor example, a radio station has commercials as a platform, they should have a listener database with email addresses for an email blast campaign. The station can increase revenue by selling Google AdWords campaigns to its clients and managing that part of the marketing, plus they can display or video advertising platforms on their website to complete the integrated campaign….

What’s an Integrated Marketing Campaign

Alan Kercinik, now at Ogilvy Public Relations, said yesterday, November 8, “Communications and marketing channels continue to converge, which means agencies need to tap diverse expertise and experience to build engaging, creative campaigns. I was attracted to the model and the team’s ability to provide clients with high-level strategic thinking, creative excellence and integrated programs.”On Facebook, Coca-Cola has received more than 35 million “likes,” and Coke’s senior vice president of integrated marketing who oversees the social media effort, says having all those fans respond to Coke is meaningful. Letting fans be fans on Facebook, instead of turning the page into a corporate mouthpiece, has paid off, says Jedrzejewski. “People are savvy enough to know when a Facebook page is contrived and manufactured.”My takehome for you, small to medium sized brands still working to get a foothold and engage a new type of market: “If you’ve got people who are passionate about your brand, you’re over half way there,”

Adding to the animal-themed search algorithm updates by Google – Hummingbird, Panda, Penguin – if you haven’t heard, Google Pigeon has arrived. Pigeon is a local search ranking algorithm. Pigeon was released by Google July, 2014. It’s goal was to provide more accurate, relevant and useful search results to users. So how does Google Pigeon change local search?

Pigeon was released in response to the need to separate local search with global search because for local businesses, local search yields conversions. Since the Pigeon algorithm affects both Google Maps and web results, with Pigeon brands are seeing their sites drop in rankings, and drop in the amount of traffic sent their way. Business owners asked “why?” Simple.

Google Pigeon emphasizes the following three areas:

Web ranking signals, also more commonly called backlinks

Physical location of a business

Emphasis on Knowledge Graph results to provide more relevant results

The second point reveals that Pigeon places significant emphasis on the location of a business or brand, and the third point, in keeping with Google’s mission, emphasizes more relevant results to users. This is why Pigeon has changed local search. With Pigeon, Google interprets specific queries as “brand queries” and returns relevant results based on those queries. Google also sees desktop queries similar to mobile queries and returns results based upon location.How Does Google Pigeon Change Local Search?

The Pigeon algorithm is so far the biggest local search update released by Google and it’s no secret: it’s designed to provide more useful local results. Pigeon has also improved distance and location ranking parameters for Google Maps, providing more accurate and specific location-based data. Oh and one other hint: Your Google My business page is now more integral to not only your rank but perhaps to the rank of others.

What’s next from here? Google has told us they will be updating the Penguin algorithm continuously, optimizing as they go:

That last big update is still rolling out — though really there won’t be a particular end-point to the activity, since Penguin is shifting to more continuous updates. The idea is to keep optimizing as we go.

All things considered, should businesses be concerned with the intricacies of the Pigeon algorithm and does Google Pigeon change local search? You betcha. Because at the end of the day, most of us want to rank high – and hold our rank – in the world’s most powerful search engine.

Everyone wants to rank high in Google. Whether they have a 10-year-old domain or a name they need to register. The future of domain names is now in the hands of Google (I know, one more thing) as the company launches Google Domains 2020 to businesses and website owners who want to gain twofold benefits from this new venture. So, why, you ask, do you want to register a domain with Google Domains in 2020? Here are just a few of the reasons:Google Domains in 2020: Why You need One

Google Domains are Reasonably Priced: Domain registration on Google starts at $12 per year, which is comparable to top domain registration sites like GoDaddy. But the good thing is, at this price, almost all hidden charges are covered. However with GoDaddy, if you secure a domain name for $9.99 per year, you’ll likely later be paying more for extra features. With Google Domains, at just $12 you’ll receive the following features:

Top-Notch Support: When it comes to help and support, Google Domains offers a one-of-a-kind customer service department with 24/7 support, along with live chat. If you have trouble during the registration or domain transfer process, Google says you can contact their support desk and have your issue resolved in a matter of hours.

Interesting New Domain Endings: Google Domains is offering over 60 new domain endings like .florist, .coffee, .clothing, .kitchen, and even .xzy by Google Alphabet. So now you can get a domain name specifically targeted to your industry. Moreover, our research shows that domain names like utensils.kitchen, for example, may be more likely to rank higher from relevance than kitchenutensils.com.

We’re excited to see how Google Domains take off. Let us know what you think.

Google webmaster Trends Analyst has made an announcement. There will be clear recommendations and guidelines on search engine optimization techniques for websites that are mobile optimized. Hints have been dropped that websites that cannot customize and adapt optimization for mobile in their digital marketing and web design campaigns will eventually fall in search engine rankings.Google drops rankings for non-mobile websites

Googlebot

Google has advised that rankings for non-mobile optimized websites may drop in 2020. And also that web design should take on a responsive role as far as possible. There are few steps that can be taken when communicating by HTML that are device-specific. Around three years ago, Google introduced a mobile user agent known as Googlebot-Mobile for Smartphones. Googlebot-Mobile was meant to detect all content for mobile optimization and mobile friendly ranking. Fast forward to today. Google is now providing specific recommendations on ways to go about branding and building the websites for optimum user experience.

Elementary configurations of responsive design

There are three basic configurations web designers should give importance to when designing and development responsive websites on WordPress or others platforms. These include one URL (Uniform Resource Locator), one web content and one HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) code. And CSS media queries to specify which CSS rules apply for the browser displaying the page. Such configurations allow users to interact with a web page and also permit Google’s algorithms to allocate indexing properties to the content. Such annotations will help the discovery of the content, which is smartphone-optimized, and help the algorithms in understanding the content structure. If possible, Google recommends the responsive design approach.

Websites that are built responsive will seamlessly serve all devices with the same URL set. They will also serve the same HTML using CSS to alter the user experience for each device. CSS 3 media queries can be used to change the way pages are delivered for mobile devices.

So what’s the takehome? when Google drops rankings for non-mobile websites

In 2020, go responsive or consider taking your ball and bat and going home. Well, maybe just hitting the sidelines. With Google’s recent strong nod to responsive web design in 2020, there’s really no reason any longer to not use responsive web design. Consider responsivity the new “it” standard that is most likely here to stay.

One of the best ways for your business to start the New Year is with an innovative search strategy. One that banks on continuous improvement. No one gets it perfect all the time. And search engine optimization is both art and science of learning, course-correcting and utilizing the ever-changing sea of available data to apply and adjust your SEO strategy in a way that makes your website attractive to not only people but to the search engines as well. So give your business a healthy boost by revisiting and revising your website’s SEO strategies for 2020.

The strongest SEO approach for the New Year is to first understand the entire customer environment. This is so that you can provide customers the experiences that strengthen brands. After all, the brands most loved aren’t always built on big ideas; they’re based on firm ideals.

Technical audit

The foundation of any search engine optimization strategy first requires a technical audit. This audit provides the intricate details of your website. It includes it’s rank, the source of any redirects, existing errors, broken links and any duplicate content or urls. After all, you can’t make a proper go-forward plan without knowing where you’re at currently. Google Webmaster Tools, MOZ Pro – or even some of the free tools – are great, and even Screaming Frog’s reporting is a good place to start SEO Strategies for 2020.

Google Analytics

Google Analytics should be installed and verified on your website. As with all of Google’s tools, Google Analytics is a user-friendly tool that provides both long-term and real-time user data. The data is broken down by almost any metric you choose, and even includes goal creation and tracking.

The basics

While ALT texts, titles, tags and meta descriptions aren’t everything, and some argue aren’t even much, they do provide value and can’t be ignored. With some of the handy reporting tools we’ve mentioned, you can start exporting lists and get to work on your SEO strategies for 2020. Rumor has it there are search changes in store for 2020.

Google seems to be “all in” lately with big changes. At SMX West last week, Gary Illyes discussed changes to Google’s ranking algorithm for mobile devices. Here’s the big take home from last and recent weeks from Google:Big Google Search Changes 2020

Big Google Search Changes 2020

January 21 is a ‘very important date’

Google has announced a date for making existing sites mobile friendly. According to Illyes, “April 21st is a very important day.” There will be increased weight given to the mobile-friendliness of websites: “This change will affect mobile searches in all languages worldwide and will have a significant impact in our search results. Consequently, similar to past updates focusing on content quality, users will find it easier to get relevant, high quality search results that are optimized for their devices. Have sites ready by the 21st and [they] will be good. As soon as Google discovers the site is mobile friendly, it will be updated.” Following this rollout, users will find it easier to get relevant, high quality search results that are optimized for their devices.

Site testing tools to help

If you’ve been putting off optimizing your website, we’d strongly encourage you to update it now. Once April 21 arrives, you may be left dealing with a significant drop in ranking and traffic. And recovery will likely be more difficult than preparing now.There are plenty of testing tools to help:

If you have a site, you can use Webmaster Tools to get a full list of usability issues across your site using the Mobile Usability Report.

If it’s not already, make sure your website displays properly on mobile using responsive design or a separate mobile site – although with the latter, take precautions to avoid creating duplicate content.

A good “fetch and render” in Webmaster Tools should help Google rediscover and index faster once you’ve addressed any issues. April 21st is right around the corner so it’s time to hop to it.

Responsive is good but it doesn’t change rank

It’s no secret, Google favors responsive design, probably because it provides a better user experience. Gary Illyes says they recommend responsive design because it works for Google, but responsive won’t change rank and isn’t the only solution. He says ‘mobile sites will do fine’, so long as they’re mobile optimized.

So why the change? The mobile market is exploding, and with it, many are incorporating responsive web design. As more adopt the responsive approach, the web industry will be challenged with understanding how to create and maintain responsive and accessible user experiences.

Googlebot needs to crawl

Your site won’t pass as mobile friendly even if everything else is sparkling clean if it blocks the crawling of CSS and Javascript. Make sure these files are crawl-friendly.

Mobile isn’t just for the homepage

Google takes all pages into consideration and gauges mobile friendliness on a page by page basis. All pages, meaning the entire responsive or mobile site, should be mobile friendly.

The future holds a separate mobile index

Illyes said Google has a team working on separate mobile indexes, although there is nothing to announce at this time.

HTTPS: The time is now

From Illyes’ Google + page today, a recent small Google analysis showed more than 80% of the HTTPS URLs eligible for indexing can’t become canonical because website owners aren’t telling Google about them. E.g. these sites are using HTTP rather than HTTPS in their sitemap files, in the rel-canonical and rel-alternate-hreflang elements. “If your site supports HTTPS, please do tell us: use HTTPS URLs everywhere so search engines can see them!”

More relevant app content in search results

From Google Webmaster Central Blog, effective Feb 26, 2015, Google will begin using information from indexed apps as a factor in ranking for signed-in users who have the app installed.

So many changes on the horizon for search, mobile, local and accessibility that it’s hard to keep up if you aren’t following it on a daily basis. It’s good to have a digital agency on your side who is.